By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Chief Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
POLICE have released the owner of the pit bull at the centre of a viral dog killing incident due to insufficient evidence.
Assistant Superintendent Bernard K Bonamy Jr, in charge of the Cable Beach police station, told The Tribune there were two men being held in connection with the incident, and both have been released as investigations into the matter continue.
“We had two persons in custody,” he said, “they were released pending investigation. We’re looking for one or two more persons.”
When asked why no charges were brought, ASP Bonamy said: “No sufficient evidence at this time.”
The Bahamas Humane Society had previously offered a $3,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the man who filmed and encouraged a canine, which appeared to be a pit bull, to kill a smaller dog.
The dog killing video went viral on social media late last week. The three-minute, two-second-long clip shows the larger dog viciously attacking and biting the neck of the smaller, brown dog and dragging it into the sea while the smaller dog screams and yelps.
The man filming the video praises the attack and claims that this is not the first dogfight the pit bull has won.
Dog fighting is illegal under the Animal Protection Act.
Despite the public’s reaction to the incident, long-time BHS President Kim Arahna has cried foul over the state of animal rights in the country. She lamented animal cruelty was not taken seriously despite legislation against it.
The incident closely follows another video recording of animal cruelty that went viral last month, which depicted the killing of an endangered loggerhead turtle.
Three people were given a conditional discharge for violating the Fisheries Act, and ordered to perform 500 hours of community service and attend a voluntary intervention programme in connection with that incident.
Bahamas National Trust and other conservationists expressed disappointment over the “lenient” sentencing.
The non-governmental organisation said the situation “missed an opportunity” to send a clear message that the actions constituted a serious offence.
Comments
John 6 years ago
Like I said earlier the only thing that can be done is to euthanize the dog. It’s a natural instinct for dogs to kill other animals dogs, cats birds snakes, lizards. They have been domesticated to suppress their killers instinct. And once it is reactivated they will have to be put to sleep.
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years ago
The same can be said about Sebas Bastian and Craig Flowers who are killing our society.
sealice 6 years ago
no man that was purely motivated by the owner
GypsySoul 6 years ago
John, are you a canine behavioralist? "Insufficient Evidence" is a sad statement to share with the International Community who has seen the self recorded and internet posted "Evidence"
DDK 6 years ago
Can an on-line video not be tracked to a computer or cell-phone?
Any up-date on the carrying out of community service of the turtle killer monsters?
joeblow 6 years ago
Simply ban pit bulls in this country and give owners 60 days to have the dogs euthanized. Impose a $10.000 fine for each and every infraction thereafter. Problem solved!
sheeprunner12 6 years ago
100% agree with you ....... We do not need any more killers in this country ...... and please do not tell me that this dog breed is "harmless".
TorontoGal 6 years ago
Banning Pit Bull dogs or any breed ban is NOT the answer. The owner of these dogs are the problem not the dog. Any dog that is abused or trained to be vicious will be vicious. Pit Bull type dogs are not vicious - they do have a powerful jaw, unlike other dogs - but they are a gentle dog.
This idea of breed ban isn't any different that the thought of banning Rottweiler and Doberman Pinchers years ago. Even a Chihuahua can be vicious if trained that way. It's the morons who get these dogs and use them to intimidate and abuse. They are the problem, not the dog. Put the morons into a pen and let the dogs rip them to shreds "just for the fun of it"!
People need to be educated on how to treat animals. Animal fighting needs to be banned.
DDK 6 years ago
How right you are TorontoGal!
joeblow 6 years ago
It is an established fact that dogs have certain personalities. Labradors for instance are far safer around children by nature than a pit-bull.
You may not be aware that his country has problems educating people how to treat other people much less dogs. The simple short term solution is to ban this specific breed because of its known tendencies!
I've never seen a pit-bull as a lap dog!
sealice 6 years ago
MORE BS FROM DIS GUBMINT THAT SAID THEY WERE GONG TO PROTECT ALL BAHAMIANS RIGHTS.....
sealice 6 years ago
banning the dogs is not the answer - with the pitbulls it's all about the owners making them mean dogs anyone who says different hasn't dealt with dogs or hasn't dealt with larger dogs.
We should ban the owners and the dog fights and the consecutive ministers of education who have contributed to these dumbarsses that think dog fighting is cool...
joeblow 6 years ago
How do you propose to ban something that takes place in secret? The only logical solution is to ban the dogs because you can control that variable!
JustinT 6 years ago
Breed specific bans never work. Didn't work for Canada didn't work for England. Only thing that happens is people find something else to blame the problem on. If the parents of the children would actually pay attention to them and make sure they turn out psycho you wouldn't have to worry about animal cruelty or senseless killing.
sheeprunner12 6 years ago
True, we sure cannot ban all of the thugs who were raised in many of our homes
Islandboy100 6 years ago
Pitbulls need to be banned a lot of folks on the comment section are not local so they don't understand how we see things
Islandboy100 6 years ago
Ban pittbulls please
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